


the rubble or our sins

by zeprince



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Gen, Mad King Ryan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-28
Updated: 2014-12-28
Packaged: 2018-03-03 23:03:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2891372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeprince/pseuds/zeprince
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The king's games have destroyed Achievement City.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the rubble or our sins

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Shitscram to tumblr user beholdatimemachine. This shitty oneshot is for them.

To say King Ryan draped himself over his throne would be an overstatement; he lounged in his throne like a hungry beast, both sensually animal and disproportionately human. He was a thick, strong man, built like a bull without the intensity of one. His crown, heavy with its diamond plating, its twin spikes curling from his head like horns, make his head look bulky and disproportionate. King Ryan was, for all intents and purposes, an awkward looking man with big arms and a good chin, but he carried himself and he looked at you in a way that made you forget he was anything but regal.

Jack Patillo stayed where he was, kneeling in front of the king. Ryan’s eyes were closed, head titled back, Adam’s apple bobbing lazily as he remained in the same position he’d been in since Jack entered, twenty minutes prior.

Jack knew that the king was not easily angered, nor was he often violent or of poor judgement. A reputation for being cruel did not come from tyranny; madness, perhaps, was too strong of a term to describe his undercurrent of chaos. Keeping on Ryan’s good side was a matter of treading softly, and having the sheer luck of not standing in his way. Jack would wait here for as long as it took for King Ryan to address him; Ryan may be ‘mad’, but Jack was patient, and Jack would play Ryan’s game.

“What do you want from me, echo?” Ryan finally said, not lifting his head to look at the builder.

“Your highness.” Jack replied, standing finally and keeping his head bowed. “I just want you to know, that there is nothing more I can do to repair our city.”

The silence between the builder and the king was staggering. Jack didn’t say it with any sort of malice; his voice was matter of fact, open, apologetic.

“Nothing?” Ryan said, his voice playful and biting, amused at the expression of honesty in Jack, but not in a malicious way. “There is nothing you can do at this point to possibly save Achievement City?”

“I don’t even know where to begin.” Jack admitted, his voice still open and honest. “There’s nothing but a pit in the heart of our city, there’s not a single living thing besides us… We tried to swim, your highness, we really did, but there’s not another island for miles around. We have nowhere left to go. I… the only thing left intact is the tower, your highness.”

“I suppose that is the price we have to pay for the games we played.” Ryan said quietly, pointedly, and Jack seemed distracted, troubled.

“There’s nothing I can do with it, sir.” Jack said. “The water’s full of dirt and gravel, the sand’s full of blood. There’s no food left, and there’s barely enough trees to even begin rebuilding. God, even Edgar’s dead. All the cows are dead. The sheep are dead, and it’s ugly as hell out there. We have nothing.”

“What, you mean our gold blocks can’t help us now?” Ryan said, feigning surprise.

“Don’t fuck around, Ryan.” Jack replied, addressing the king by name in a tired voice. “We’re all tired of this game. Of those games. Of playing. What the hell are we left with now, eh? We’ve killed ourselves for the damn tower over and over and over, and we ruined everything around us. It’s like we milked Achievement City. Milked it dry.”

“Well, I guess we’ll have to find another one.” Ryan said quietly.

“But that’s the point, we don’t HAVE another city like this, we can’t ever find it again. The island is LITERALLY useless. And we can’t find our way to any other place that can sustain us.”

Ryan turned again; abrupt, sharp, calculated. Jack watched him go for a minute, feeling thoroughly shaken in a way he couldn’t describe.

“But echo,” he said. “That’s the thing. As long as we’re standing here, useless land or not, there will be Achievement City.”

“Ryan.” Jack said, then hesitated. Ryan paused, his shoulders cutting through the light coming in from the window.

“Yes?”

“Why, after all this time, do you still call me echo?” The builder asked, boldly, but felt himself falter. After pausing for a moment to regroup himself, he continued. “I mean, it’s kind of… beating a dead horse, with that joke, isn’t it?”

“Jack,” Ryan said, a laugh jumping in his chest. “We _beat_ dead horses until they trampled our kingdom into dust. That’s all we know to do.”


End file.
